Santa baby

Starting a new relationship around the holidays is a high-pressure situation. Adequately gauging your new flame's approach to give-giving takes considerable time and thought, and normally is enough to send this girl into a pre-holiday tailspin.

I usually try not to spend too much, because that makes a girl seem too invested and overbearing - and I am so not that girl. Conversely, an inexpensive gift rarely seems thoughtful enough to be worth the trouble. Plus I love giving gifts now that I'm financially independent, it's one of the best ways I can think of to spend my earnings.

If this were 6 months from now, I would love to give him tickets to a Mavs game, since he used to both play and coach basketball. The good seats get pretty pricey, but that's the beauty of a gift of sports tickets: it's potentially as much a gift to him as it is to me! Far be it from me, though, to dictate how a gift is used, so I would of course have to be prepared for him to take someone else. It's too early in the game for such a financial gamble.

To make matters worse, this year, I may be stuck with the double-whammy -- the pre-Christmas birthday. I'm familiar with the pre-holiday birthday lament, those poor souls born around Easter or Father's Day or what have you, and I would never, ever commit the dual-purpose gift offense. Under normal circumstances I would need to come up with not one, but two, gifts to cover this one.

It would be a SWEET excuse for floor seats versus the Lakers, though.

Of course there's the very real possibility that he doesn't want to exchange gifts at all, and I'm fine with that -- as are my bank account and my sanity. In fact, I almost prefer it. I think I'll just go with that and hope for the best! And come up with another excuse to watch basketball.